you have the euro crisis. you have a global recession. you have a rising china. it is a very a out of world right now. i'm not sure that it's going to be less -- it is a very chaotic world right now. i'm not sure that it's going to be less chaotic if we pull back, because bad actors will fill that power vacuum. host: james kitfield of the "national journal." caller: google james morris, r ussia today, you will see that it is a spinoff --sia russia today, you will see that it is as enough -- a spinoff. guest: they kind of backed the idea that assad just stay in power. israel likes the status quo. the arab spring totally reshuffles the strategic calculus for israel, especially with the peace treaty. the israelis are very nervous about a lot of the repercussions from the arab spring. are they pushing for this rebellion that gets rid of assad? not to my knowledge. it has been really focused on the shiite gulf countries like saudi arabia -- sunnis in the saudi arabia. saudi arabia, qatar, and others have been very worried that assad will stay in place. they are very o